France coach Didier Deschamps said Kylian Mbappé is “getting better every day” and “wants to play” as they look to clinch top spot in Group D against bottom side Poland at Euro 2024 on Tuesday.
Mbappe, who sustained a broken nose in their tournament opening 1-0 win over Austria, was absent as Les Bleus laboured to a 0-0 draw against the Netherlands in Leipzig at the weekend. That flat performance quite naturally led to fears about their attacking potency when shorn of their chief goal threat.
Deschamps will have been encouraged to see Mbappe – fitted with a protective mask – take part in a 60-minute practice match on Sunday, scoring twice and setting up two more in a game against under-21 players from Paderborn, France’s home for the tournament.
The Real Madrid-bound striker will wear the mask if he does play against Poland at Dortmund’s Westfalenstadion.
“The bruise has gone down, he is getting used to playing in a mask,” Deschamps said on Monday. “He wants to play – he wanted to play against the Netherlands and he wants to play against Poland.”
N’Golo Kante sounded more convinced Mbappé would be returning. “He was great, decisive and dangerous,” midfielder Kante said of Mbappé’s performance in practice.
“I think he feels well and I hope this translates on the pitch tomorrow.”
Midfielder Aurelien Tchouameni, who will be a teammate of Mbappe at Real Madrid next season, said the forward was ready to play against the Polish in Dortmund.
“Everybody knows that he wants to play the next game, it’s not a surprise for anyone,” said Tchouameni.
“He is getting used to the mask, he and we obviously would prefer he could play without it but we don’t have a choice. We know that he’ll be ready. Nothing’s changed. We know he will bring a lot to the match if he plays.”
France need a point to guarantee a place in the round of 16 but have probably already done enough to advance. Les Bleus are tied on four points with the Netherlands, with Austria a point back in third ahead of their match against the Dutch in Berlin.
Poland lost their opening two games – to the Netherlands (2-1) and Austria (3-1) – and were the first team to be eliminated from the tournament. Captain Robert Lewandowski, who turns 36 in August, could play his last ever European Championship match.
Poland coach Michal Probierz also announced that goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny will be dropped, with Lukasz Skorupski or Marcin Bulka coming in. Szczęsny has already said he is retiring from the national team after the Euros.
“We will play against France with our best possible line-up. This game will be good for us as part of our preparations for the Nations League in the autumn," said the Poland coach.
Netherlands aim to beat Austria and snatch top spot
The Netherlands will hope to sneak ahead of the French and pinch top spot in the group but face a dangerous Austria side who may need a positive result to reach the last 16.
Dutch coach Ronald Koeman was critical of his players, saying they "weren't up to scratch" in the 0-0 draw with France.
"We lost possession when we shouldn't have and our pressing wasn't great either, there was too much space in between the lines. France had better chances than we did," Koeman said.
"If we think about the whole game there were times we weren't up to scratch."
The Netherlands have topped their groups at each of the past two major tournaments, although they were still eliminated by the Czech Republic in the last 16 at Euro 2020.
Despite a promising start to this campaign, there has been plenty of debate over Koeman's selections and the calls for Wout Weghorst to replace Memphis Depay up front are growing louder.
"When a ball came to me, there was little support. Then you have to hold the ball and unfortunately that didn't work a number of times. That has to be improved," Depay admitted after the France stalemate.
Matthijs de Ligt, who starred in the second half of last season for Bayern Munich, has been overlooked with Inter Milan's Stefan de Vrij partnering Virgil van Dijk in central defence. Former Ajax star De Ligt has been speaking to a psychologist to help him process not being in the starting XI.
"These kinds of moments can be tough," he told Dutch media. "By talking about them you make it lighter and you can put the energy back on the field instead of wasting it on those kinds of thoughts."
Austria, meanwhile, will likely go through with a point as one of the best third-placed teams but could also finish first with a win, if France fail to beat Poland.
Tipped by some as one of the dark horses for the tournament, Ralf Rangnick's team impressed in a 3-1 victory over Poland last time out.
"Somehow it is nice to be called that [dark horses]," said Christoph Baumgartner, who scored against the Poles.
"We won against Germany in the build-up, we had a really good period in the last few weeks and months, and then people start to think big quite quickly.
"But we as a team always knew how to assess the situation. We knew against France we weren't at our maximum. We know if we reach our best level we can beat a lot of nations."
